Academy Update - February 26, 2013

With only one week remaining before the start of the spring portion of the 2012-13 U.S. Soccer Development Academy (USSDA) season, D.C. United’s Academy and Pre-Academy are keeping busy.

The Black-and-Red’s U-18s scrimmaged against the Olney Rangers last Thursday and won 1-0, with Bashir Hooper (Haymarket, Va.) scoring the lone goal. The third-place U-18s (8-4-1) will continue training this week ahead of the squad’s first spring match on Saturday, March 2 against second-place Baltimore Bays Chelsea (9-2-1) at 1 p.m. in Owings Mill, Md. The U-16s participated in another friendly last week against Pachuca FC’s U-17 squad. The team will play in scrimmages this week against youth teams from Pipeline SC, a club that features former United player Santino Quaranta. The U-16s (11-0-2), the league’s current leaders, will resume action in the USSDA this coming Saturday, March 2 against second-place Baltimore Bays Chelsea (7-3-2) at 3:30 p.m. in Owings Mill, Md.

U-14 Pre-Academy player Jose Carranza (Manassas, Va.; Northern Virginia Soccer Club) is in U.S. U-14 Boy’s National Team (BNT) camp in Carson, Calif. Carranza started in one of four scrimmages, a 5-2 win against the LA Galaxy U-15s. Carranza will then join U.S. Club Soccer’s 2013 id2 National Selection International Tour in Spain on Thursday. The team, which consists of boys born in 1999 and selected from the id2 Program events in 2012, will travel to the European country from February 28 to March 11. While in Madrid and Barcelona, Carranza and his teammates will take on youth academy squads from Real Madrid on March 5 and FC Barcelona on March 7.